Hot Press Big Break winner Ciaran Lavery @ Monroe’s Live

BY KERNAN ANDREWS Galway Advertiser, Tue, Oct 20, 2015

Ciaran Lavery.

CIARAN LAVERY, winner of the Hot Press Big Break competition, described as "easily in the top three greatest songsmiths in the country, if not the most naturally-gifted Northern Irish voices of his generation" by The Thin Air website, is coming to Galway.

The alt.folk singer-songwriter from Aghagallon in County Antrim, will play Monroe's Live on Sunday November 8 at 8.30pm. His songs deal with love, loss, and redemption, and he has released a number of critically acclaimed records, including 2013's Not Nearly Dark. Jim Carroll in The Irish Times called has songwriting "nothing short of remarkable"; Nialler9 named him among the top 10 new artists at the 2015 The Great Escape festival 2015 in Brighton; while Snow Patrol’s Gary Lightbody has described him as “stunning and magical”.

He cites Bob Dylan and Tom Waits as inspirations. Regarding his own songwriting he told The Irish Post: “Once I’ve let someone in to hear them, they aren’t my songs any more. People come up to you and say the strangest things like ‘this song meant a lot to me’, or they tell me what they think the song is about and it’s maybe not, but their version is usually better than mine so I usually agree with them."